Two Unsigned UFAs the Devils Should Still Have Interest In
There are two still-unsigned free agents the Devils should be keeping in mind when considering filling their remaining holes.
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The New Jersey Devils, despite appearances, still do have a couple of holes up front that need to be filled out. Assuming the space is cleared, there are a couple of remaining UFAs on the market who could adequately fill those holes. Without wasting any time, let’s get right into two of them:
1. Jack Roslovic
The Devils are still in need of another middle-six center, and while I have the confidence that Cody Glass can handle the defensive responsibilities without question, there is some concern about his offensive game and whether or not he’ll be able to keep up. Enter Jack Roslovic, who remains unsigned after a 22-goal, 39-point campaign with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2024-25.
Roslovic, 28, has mostly played wing throughout his career, but is no stranger to taking faceoffs and jumping into a center role. In fact, the two seasons in which he recorded the most point production came while he was playing down the middle — he had 45 points in 2021-22 and 44 in 2022-23 for the Columbus Blue Jackets while playing a center role rather than operating on the wing.
Roslovic’s skillset would mesh well with the Devils’ team complexion and system, I think. While he has scored 22 goals in a single season twice now and ended the 2024-25 season with more goals than assists, he has predominantly been a playmaker throughout his career. Roslovic has logged as many as 33 assists in a slate, and his microstats suggest that he’s much more of a passer than a shooter.
In the (unlikely) case that he ends up in the Devils’ black and red, I wouldn’t expect him to log another 20-goal season — he shot 15.8% last season as compared to his career average of 12.4. It also marked the first time since 2021-22 that he scored more goals than were expected of him from his individual expected goals (ixG) totals. That isn’t to say he isn’t good for 15 or so, but to expect 20-plus would likely be an overstep.
AFP Analytics has Roslovic’s contract coming in at three years and a shade over $4 million AAV, but I think that, considering he hasn’t signed yet, he will likely end up with less. As a player who has floated just above the half-point-per-game threshold since 2019-20, he would provide the Devils with a valuable offensive spark for the third line. I would be significantly more comfortable from an offensive perspective with Roslovic taking second-line reps if one of Hischier or J. Hughes is to go down with injury, too, considering his offensive floor as compared to Glass's.
2. Victor Olofsson
If the Devils are still in the market for a middle-six winger, which they should be, considering that their top-six still consists of two wingers (Stefan Noesen and Ondrej Palat) that have no business operating in that significant a role, Victor Olofsson presents as an excellent option to play as a complementary piece to the second line.
Olofsson, 29, just finished a 56-game campaign in which he totaled 15 goals and 29 points, six and eight of which came on the man advantage, respectively.
It’s easy to forget the quality of player that Olofsson was considering his fall from grace in the last couple of years, but he scored 163 points in 257 games (with three 20+ goal seasons) from 2019-20 to 2022-23. That’s a 0.63 point-per-game average in those four seasons, which is an 82-game-pace of 52 points. That’s not bad production for a middle-six, complementary winger.
The Devils could use another goal scorer, and Olofsson is just that. He hasn’t scored fewer goals than his ixG in a single season through his entire career, solidifying him as a well-above-average finisher. Throughout his career, he has also struggled as the main playdriver on a line but serves well in a complementary role. If he were to appear on the second line, say, with Timo Meier and Nico Hischier, he wouldn’t need to be a facilitator of play by any means, and would instead slide to a purely goal-scoring, complementary role. That would suit the player and the team quite well.
Beyond his offensive tools and obvious goal-scoring abilities, Olofsson also has elite defensive underlying numbers and an extremely strong positional foundation in his own zone. As per Evolving Hockey, he ranked in the 93rd percentile in the NHL for overall defensive impact in their GAR/xGAR model, pictured below:
At even strength, Olofsson ranked 15th in the NHL in defensive goals above replacement (GAR) among forwards, ahead of quite literally every forward on the Devils. I’m not saying that he’d theoretically jump right in and be the team’s best defensive forward, but he would certainly fit in well in that regard, considering that they already have a plethora of defensive stalwarts up front.
Adding Olofsson to the roster, to me, would make the most sense if the plan is still to part ways with Palat. His NTC, I’m sure, has made it difficult for the Devils to execute their plan to shed his contract, but if they’re able to do so, it makes sense for New Jersey to target someone like Olofsson as a complement to the playdriving players of the team. Even if they believe someone like Arseniy Gritsyuk can assume the position of a top-six winger, Olofsson would be a superb addition to the third line and provide the team with capable goalscoring aptitude lower in the lineup and on the second power play unit.
AFP Analytics has Olofsson’s projected contract as a three-year deal worth $3.4 million a year. I don’t think this will be nearly as much as he gets — if anything, a one-year deal in the $1-2 million AAV range is what my guess would be.
Despite having a (mostly) full roster right now, the Devils do still have some holes to fill up front, mainly by proxy of not having the right amount of talent to be a true contender. Their core four forwards are all fantastic players, but it’s clear that they need an upgrade on the wing to complement them. Evgenii Dadonov serves as a decent-enough one-year stopgap, and perhaps they see the potential fit with Arseniy Gritsyuk down the line. For right now, though, actively employing Palat in a top-six capacity is a crime against humanity, and even if they don’t replace him with a true top-six caliber talent, just about anyone is a better option.
In the hypothetical scenario in which they are able to be rid of Palat and his godawful contract, that opens the door for either Mercer to slide into a top-six wing role and open up a third-line center role (Roslovic, perhaps?) or for that position to be filled out in free agency (Olofsson?) while Mercer stays at 3C.
Either way, the path forward is a clear one: Palat must go.